Charity Shop Surplus

NumboJumbo

What happens to the stuff that charity shops feel they can’t sell. I know clothes get sold to rag merchants and the like, but what about the other knick knacky stuff eg books or small toys. Do they just get chucked in the bin? I seem to remember something like this question being asked in the past but for the life of me I can't find it when I do a search thru the forum.


The reason I ask this, is that when I go on my holidays to 3rd world countries, I normally take something to give out to orphanages or other needy organisations. I wondered whether it’s worth approaching these charity shops to relieve them of what we westerners might consider tat, but which might be of great use abroad.


If anybody works in a charity shop, I’d be grateful of some advice here. TIA

COOLTRIKERCHICK

a lot of the charity shops refuse items that are not of a certain standard now. and yes books and bric-abrac type items are binned , unless the have an agreement with someone to take it off their hands... you find that book dealers will buy or take their unsold or unsaleable books and sort through them,

i know some rag merchants are now offering a service to take away the bric a brac etc for free, and then dispose of it via skip etc..

so i think it would be a good idea to contact charity shops, but as with all businesses these days they have got to have a licensed waste carrier to take away their unwanted items...as you got to have a 'cradle to the grave' trail of what happens to any waste produced

NumboJumbo

Thanks for your answer and it was as I suspected, ie stuff gets binned or given away to rag/tat merchants. I have a few ideas as to how to get rid of the stuff, but without having ever worked in a charity shop, I'm unaware of the practicalities nor the mechanics of how my ideas could be realised. I'd also be unsurprised if my ideas hadn't been mooted with the charity shops before.

lamb7994

Hi

The charity shop i manage recycles all paper , books and plastics and any electrical items as well as unsaleable clothes and shoes etc with out rag merchant.
any other bric a brac which is breakable to binned as the reg merchant won't take them.

If you're going to follow it through try contacting a local shop but make sure you can reguarly pick up as most are limited for space.

James

vikki_louise

my mum works a couple of doors down from a charity shop, she says so much is binned, its put her off donating unless its something she is sure it will be used rather than tipped

COOLTRIKERCHICK

depending on what items you wanted to take with you, would depend on where to ask,

are you going to consentrate of schooling items like educational books, pens pencils etc?

as i should imagine you could ask your local school to see if you could have the pens and pencils etc that are in lost property at the end of the term,

you have been quite vague in what you really want to take with you, so maybe if you let us know what type of items you are looking for, we could suggest some ideas for you.

i know at the moment there are lot of people saying they are 'helping' certain causes etc, and then over the next few months you see hem selling your donated items at boot sales:mad:

NumboJumbo

When I go away to third world countries, there is always an opportunity for me to visit an orphanage or a school. The things I would focus on therefore, would be stationery and small gimicky knick-knacky action toys. These are useful in handing out to kids in the streets, but not the ones who ask for something as they are normally ones who do it on a regular basis and are not deserving in my eyes, but that's a matter of opinion of course.

I like your idea about approaching schools, but usually I place a wanted ad up on Freecycle. I usually get a positive response from people promising to give me stuff to donate to the places I go, but they seem to get a memory lapse and forget all about it. I suppose it makes them feel good to offer, but normally (not always) that's as far as it goes.

I suppose I'm wondering what stuff charity shops do actually throw away and how much they could prevent from going into rubbish tips. At the end of the day, I presume it's all about storage space and the time volunteers are prepared to help out charity shops. If these unsaleable items can be just thrown away to make room for saleable items, then I suppose that in the end is the easiest option for them.

I will have to get my ideas written up properly and then approach the charity organisations. I'll then see how useless or useful they are, but essentially they tend to (but not all of them) revolve around people either coming in 'on the fly' or by prior arrangement to see if there's anything going that would benefit other worthwhile causes. I take your point that these items could end up at car boot sales and the like and I'll have to ponder that one.

butler_helen

I do this with freecycle, I ask people who offer clothes/childrens toys and explain where I am taking them.

In addition, I am doing carboots/ebay with ALL profits to the charity (vine trust at the moment) for those items which I wouldn't take over. It's working well, as I found asking other charities to help another charity had no positive results (which I understand).

I found taking out hats/working gloves/wooden toys and those magic rings (the kind from christmas crackers) went down well.

H

dawn27

i know of someone who has an arrangement with their local charity shop, he buys all the electrical items donated to them. maybe you could offer a nominal fee in exchange for the goods they can't stock, they may be glad of having a way of making money from these instead of throwing them away

GiveItBack

vikki_louise wrote: »

my mum works a couple of doors down from a charity shop, she says so much is binned, its put her off donating unless its something she is sure it will be used rather than tipped

having said that, a lot of shops get 'donated' so much stuff that is really only good for the rubbish, that some of it may be that.....

remembered_nights

Oxfam have two contracts going - one place takes unsaleable clothes, these are then sold in the UK and in third-world countries. Just recently we've got a book contract that's similar.

We can't sell electrical items, so they either go in the bin or staff take them.

Bric-a-brac and toys if unsaleable go into the bin (or again, staff take).

I know some of the smaller ones near me sell unsaleable clothes to the ragman so they do at least get a small amount for them.